STOEP CHAT

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13 April 2023

Goddesses, Bunnies and Eggs

So how many of you scoffed Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies over the weekend?

I bet most of you, because there is something compelling about peeling off that shiny coloured paper and sinking one’s teeth into lovely chocolate, especially when everyone else is doing so amid a fesve atmosphere.

Actually, I like those plain white Easter eggs best. Somemes I paint them with food colouring.

An interesng fact from Encyclopaedia Britannica dropped into my inbox last week that said: “Painng Easter eggs was first recorded in the 13th century. The church had banned the eang of eggs during Holy Week. Unaware of the ban, chickens connued laying eggs during Holy Week, the week before Easter”

Herecal hens!

Chrisans who followed the holy decree nevertheless had all these hens producing eggs, “which were decorated rather than consumed”, apparently because the eggs produced during Holy Week were considered special. I assume they ate them on Easter Sunday.

And the origin of Easter? It is, of course, to commemorate the crucifixion and resurrecon of Jesus of Nazareth, but why at this me of year?

In the early days of the Chrisan church, holy days were aached to pagan fesvals that had been celebrated in Europe for hundreds or even thousands of years. Easier for the Church to tack a Chrisan holy day onto an exisng pagan fesval than to try to ban ancient pagan fesvals. They would have had an uphill bale.

One of the important pagan fesvals in the northern hemisphere was the spring fesval. People who lived in cold climates were acutely aware of the seasons, and many cultures celebrated the spring equinox, when the length of the day was at last the same length as the night. “Hooray! The sun is on its way back! Spring is finally here,” you can imagine them saying aer months of short days and long, icy nights.

Naturally this called for a fesval, and the early Chrisan church decided to celebrate the resurrecon of Christ at the same me. It is easy to see that eggs, where new life emerges from a hard shell, would become a symbol of rebirth – both in pagan and Chrisan tradions.

And the name Easter? Well, the 8th century monk, the Venerable Bede, wrote that it came from the word Eostra, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and ferlity. Modern scholars think this might not be the case. They think it may have come from the Old High German word eostarum, which came from a Lan word meaning “dawn”. Who knows.

We do know that in the year 325, the Council of Nicaea decreed that Easter should be observed on the first Sunday aer the first full moon aer the spring equinox. (Autumn equinox for us). So Easter can be on any Sunday between March 22 and April 25.

So, back to my Easter bunny. Just before I started typing, I ate his ears, the best part because the chocolate is thickest. Since then I’ve hopped up twice, once to scoff his head and then for tea and his tummy

So my lile chocky friend, it’s me for your toes. Happy Easter!